What a waste: we could be recycling more

Consumers are sending more rubbish to landfill sites than necessary because they are unclear about which things can be recycled and which cannot, a survey indicated today.

In research for the vocational qualifications provider City & Guilds, 88% of UK households said they were already recycling some of their waste. But nearly half (46%) thought they could improve if they better understood which materials could be recycled.

Even those who did try to recycle as much as possible often got it wrong, according to council staff.

More than half told researchers householders tried to recycle the wrong types of plastic, with 58% saying that such mistakes slowed up the recycling process.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics have suggested that Britons throw away an average of their body weight in rubbish every seven weeks, an amount City & Guilds said could be reduced if the process were less complicated.

The organisation is launching a new NVQ qualification for recycling staff, which it says will help them with customer care and safety and inform them of changes in one of Britain's fastest growing sectors.

John Birch, waste recycling expert at City & Guilds, said: "Our research shows that householders are more knowledgeable about recycling and would like to do much more.

"With the average dustbin containing enough unrealised energy for 3,500 showers, better recycling will certainly make a huge impact on our resources and environment."

"More and more of us are getting into the recycling habit, but sometimes we have questions about how and what can be recycled," he said.

"This will help council frontline staff answer those questions, making the service as easy and straightforward as possible."

Wrap, which was set up by the government in 2000, is currently working to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill sites by 3m tonnes and recruit at least 4 million members of the public to become "committed recyclers" by March 2008.

It claims more than 50% of household waste could be recycled - more than double the amount recorded in the last set of government figures.

These show that in 2004-5, households in England recycled almost 23% of their rubbish, compared with 57% in Germany, 64% in Netherlands and 41% in Denmark.

Local councils, which are under pressure from the government to reduce landfill and hit recycling targets, are becoming increasingly strict with householders.

Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives councils the power to specify what kinds of waste should be placed in which bins, and homeowners can face fines of up to £1,000 if they get it wrong.

Compulsory recycling schemes have been launched in some parts of London, and earlier this year Exeter council took a resident to court after rotting food was found in the wrong bin.

It lost its case because it was unable to prove that the rubbish had not been dumped by a passerby.

Today Kennet District Council in Devizes said it would issue penalty notices to residents who put out black sacks of rubbish alongside their wheelie bins, using powers granted in the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act.

The council leader, Chris Humphries, said the government fined local authorities like Kennet for exceeding rubbish targets and that cost would inevitably be passed on to the taxpayer.